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A Fierce and Subtle Poison | July 14, 2016

by Samantha Mabry (Algonquin Young Readers, April 2016)

Seventeen-year-old Lucas Knight spends his summers in San Juan, where his real estate magnate father owns several luxury hotels. His carefree life of flirting with girls and getting into mischief comes to a halt when his girlfriend Marisol is found dead on the beach. Lucas now finds himself the main suspect not only in Marisol’s death, but in the disappearances of other girls in the neighborhood. The second mystery in Samantha Mabry’s atmospheric debut hinges upon an abandoned house on Calle Sol — the subject of many a local myth. As Lucas strives to clear his name, family curses, fantasy, and reality collide in unexpected ways.

From the moment I laid eyes on A Fierce and Subtle Poison, with its evocative title and bold cover, I knew I had to read it. Mabry grounds the more fantastical elements of her story with an incisive look at Puerto Rican culture and class tensions. Fans of Leslye Walton and Laura Ruby will revel in this magical realist whodunit.

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